Old Icelandic Literature and Society

The first comprehensive account of Old Icelandic literature set within its social and cultural context.

List of contents

Introduction Margaret Clunies Ross; 1. Social institutions and belief systems of medieval Iceland (ca. 870-1400) and their relation to literary production Preben Meulengracht Sørensen; 2. From orality to literacy in medieval Iceland Judy Quinn; 3. Poetry and its changing importance in medieval Icelandic culture Kari Ellen Gade; 4. Øláfr Pø¿arson hvítaskáld and oral poetry in the west of Iceland ca. 1250 Gísli Sigur¿sson; 5. The conservation and reinterpretation of myth in medieval Icelandic writings Margaret Clunies Ross; 6. Medieval Iceland artes poeticae Stephen Tranter; 7. A useful past: historical writing in medieval Iceland Diana Whaley; 8. Sagas of Icelanders as the literary representation of a new social space Jürg Glauser; 9. The contemporary sagas and their social context Gürún Nordal; 10. The matter of the north: fiction and uncertain identities in thirteenth-century Iceland Torfi H. Tulinius; 11. Romance in Iceland Geraldine Barnes; 12. The Bible and biblical interpretation in medieval Iceland Ian Kirby; 13. Sagas of saints Margaret Cormack.

Summary

This is the first book to provide a comprehensive account of Old Icelandic literature within its social context. Leading experts examine the ways in which Iceland's unique social experiment, a kingless society without an established authority structure, inspired a wealth of writing including a new literary genre - the saga.

Product details

• Assisted by: Margaret Clunies Ross (Editor), Margaret (University of Sydney) Clunies Ross (Editor), Alastair Minnis (Editor), Margaret Clunies Ross (Editor)
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 31.05.2008
• EAN: 9780521631129
• ISBN: 978-0-521-63112-9
• No. of pages: 352
• Dimensions: 157 mm x 235 mm x 25 mm
• Weight: 722 g
• Series: Cambridge Studies in Medieval Literature; Cambridge Studies in Medieval
• Subject: Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > Other Germanic linguistics / literary studies